Best Practices in Negotiations

Session 1

Luis F. Gómez L.

Distance Learning Faculty

9 September, 2025

Please Read Me

  • Check the message Welcome greeting published in the News Bulletin Board.

  • Dear student please edit your profile uploading a photo where your face is clearly visible.

  • The purpose of the virtual meetings is to answer questions and not to make a summary of the study material.

  • This presentation is based on (Lewicki et al., 2024, Chapter 20)

  • Purpose

    • Explore and understand the ethical standards commonly accepted in a negotiation process in order to detect and deal with deceptive tactics.

Final Exam Three Party Coalition Exercise Modified

  • Why the Final Exam is a simulation and with the participation of the entire course?

    • The negotiation of conflicts is generated between individuals or groups and one way of learning is precisely by negotiating with other people.

    • It is not effective to learn individually and only theoretically.

    • It is as if a person learned theoretically to play football and without ever playing in a team. Most likely, that person will not perform well in a real match.

  • Before taking part, students should review the general and specific instructions of the Final Exam that can be checked at:

    • Tercer corte 40% > Learning Activities > Final Exam Three Party Coalition Exercise Modified

  • Before the Final Exam begins each student of the group, that has been formed, will be randomly assigned to one and only one role as a negotiator of an organization. The respective roles are:

    • Group A
    • Group B
    • Group C
  • The objective of the negotiation is to obtain the highest number of points and determine how they will be divided. This will be reflected in the grade obtained by each student.

  • If an agreement is not reached between the parties of the negotiation, each Group obtains 0 points and the grade for each student will be 20 out of 50:
Table 1: Results in case of no agreement
Group Points Grade
A 0 20
B 0 20
C 0 20

  • If an agreement is reached, it can be obtained between 2 or 3 Groups:

    • Possible agreements:

      • Case 1: A and B decide to reach an agreement to work together, they obtain 118 points and must decide how to distribute these points. However, C will be excluded.

      • Case 2: A and C decide to reach an agreement to work together, they obtain 84 points and must decide how to distribute these points. However, B will be excluded.

      • Case 3: B and C decide to reach an agreement to work together, they obtain 50 points and must decide how to distribute these points. However, A will be excluded.

      • Case 4: A, B and C decide to reach an agreement to work together, they obtain 121 points and must decide how to distribute these points. Nobody is excluded.

  • Grades

    • Case 1: A and B work together but C is excluded.

      • C obtains a grade of 37 out of 50.
      • The grade of A and B will depend on who gets the most of the 118 points. The Group that gets the most points will have a grade of 50 out of 50 and the other Group gets a grade of 42 out of 50. If A and B divide the points equally, whoever gets the highest grade will be assigned randomly.
    • Case 2: A and C work together but B is excluded.

      • B obtains a grade of 37 out of 50.
      • The grade of A and C will depend on who gets the most of the 84 points. The Group that gets the most points will have a grade of 50 out of 50 and the other Group gets a grade of 42 out of 50. If A and C divide the points equally, whoever gets the highest grade will be assigned randomly.

  • Grades

    • Case 3: B and C work together but A is excluded.

      • A obtains a grade of 37 out of 50.
      • The grade of B and C will depend on who gets the most of the 50 points. The Group that gets the most points will have a grade of 50 out of 50 and the other Group gets a grade of 42 out of 50. If B and C divide the points equally, whoever gets the highest grade will be assigned randomly.
    • Case 4: A, B and C work together so nobody is excluded.

      • The Group that obtains the highest amount of points will have a grade of 50 out of 50, the Group that obtains the second highest amount of points obtains a grade of 42 out of 50 and the Group that obtains the lowest amount of points obtains a grade of 37 out of 50. In case of a tie between any of the Groups, the one who obtains the highest grade, the second highest grade or the lowest grade will be assigned randomly depending on whether there is a tie between 2 or 3 Groups.

  • Before, during and after the Final Exam remember:

    • Before

      • To coordinate with all the participants of the course or those who eventually attend a single group since the activity will consist of a great negotion role play where each student will adopt a role.

      • To decide whether to appoint one representative per Group and the remaining students act as constituents or if all the members of the Group participate in the discussion.

  • Before, during and after the Final Exam remember:

    • During

      • You have to make 2 decisions: Who do you want to work with? How will the points be divided?
      • Your grade depends on the amount of points you obtain and no extra points will be assigned for helping or harming the parties involved in the negotiation.
      • If an agreement is reached and the same amount of points is obtained as another Group then the highest grade will be assigned randomly within the Groups that obtained the same amount of points.
      • It is okay to discuss but you must respect the parameters indicated in the last paragraph of the specific instructions.
    • After

      • Once the negotiation is over, which should last a maximum of 30 minutes, inform the professor of the final result: Was an agreement reached? What was the agreement?

  • How the grades where chosen?

Definition 1 (Fair game) A game that has an expected value of zero is called a fair game. (Inigo et al., 203 C.E., Section 3.4.2)

For example an american roulette wheel with double zero is not a fair game.

Figure 1: American roulette

In an american roulette with this characteristics we have the numbers from \(0\) to \(36\) plus \(00\).

  • Assume the american roulette is balanced, where all 38 outcomes are equally likely, and suppose you bet on a single number.

    • Also note that in casinos, if the number you bet on is hit, the winner must be paid \(35\) times their bet.
  • Suppose you bet \(1000\) on a number. In that case, the expected value is:

\[(1000 * 35) * (1 / 38) + (-1000) * (37 / 38) \approx -52.63\] Where:

  • \((1000 * 35) * (1 / 38)\) is the expected value of the winnings.
  • Otherwise, you must transfer \(1000\) to the casino (hence the negative value), with a probability of occurrence of \(37/38\)

In this sense, in the long run, your net gain is negative on average, approximately \(-52.63\). So this is not a fair game.

Definition 2 (Fair game in the sense of this class) A game that has an expected value of 43 is called a fair game in this class. This value corresponds to the minimum score necessary to obtain Matrícula de Honor according to (Umng, 2021, art. 95)

I assume that each student is equally capable to obtain a score of \(37\), \(42\) or \(50\) and that you can reach an agreement.

Then the conditional expected value assuming that you can reach an agreement is:

\[37 * (1 / 3) + 42 * (1 / 3) + 50 * (1 / 3) = 43\]

Best Practices in Negotiations

Figure 2: Best Practices for Negotiators (Lewicki et al., 2024, pp 557-565)

Figure 3: Best Practices for Negotiators (Lewicki et al., 2024, pp 557-565)

What next?

  • Book

    • Raiffa, H., & Richardson, J. (2007). Negotiation analysis: The science and art of collaborative decision making. Cambridge (Mass.: Harvard University Press.
  • Online resource

The roles managers play, negotiation and conflict resolution

Figure 4: The roles managers play (Featured, 2019, Chapter 2, sec. 1.2)

  • Management roles that apply directly to negotiation and conflict resolution (See (Mintzberg, 1989, Chapter 1))

    • Disturbance handler

      • Deals with conflicts or crises within the organization
    • Negotiator

      • Engages in negotiations both within and outside the organization

Acknowledgments

References

Featured, O. (2019). Principles of management (1st ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/details/books/principles-management
Inigo, M., Jennifer, J., Kathryn, K., Maya, L., & Kim, S. (203 C.E.). College Mathematics for Everyday Life. Coconino Community College. https://math.libretexts.org/@go/page/31955
Lewicki, R. J., Barry, B., & Saunders, D. M. (2024). Negociación (9th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education. https://www-ebooks7-24-com.ezproxy.umng.edu.co/?il=40562
Mintzberg, H. (1989). Mintzberg on management: Inside our strange world of organizations. Collier Macmillan.
Program on Negotiation. (2014a). Negotiation Role-Play: Three-Party Coalition Exercise - Game Theory & Negotiation Analytics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaOv_iXOvtY
Program on Negotiation. (2014b). Negotiation Role-Play: Three-Party Coalition Exercise - Game Theory & Negotiation Analytics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2d6XuDm-ok&feature=emb_title
Umng. (2021). Reglamento General Estudiantil de Pregrado: Acuerdo 02 de 2015 actualizado, conforme a los Acuerdos 01 de 2017, 05 de 2018 y 04 de 2020, que lo modifican parcialmente. Universidad Militar Nueva Granada.

Footnotes

  1. The videos are in english and are recordings of the Three-Party Coalition Exercise simulation